The Director's Comments
                Responsibility of Training...We Take it Seriously!

Training...professional develop-ment...extended learning! No matter how you label it, what's important is that employees have the information, tools and equipment to do their job.

With this philosophy, the Purchasing Division has been in the conference business for years. Public purchasers who have been in state government for some time may remember our staff traveling to four different locations each year, offering short seminars which lasted about one day.

We later expanded this training to a week-long conference which our participants indicated was too long.

Similar to Goldilocks, we finally got it just right when we settled with a three-day conference.

We are pleased to offer this year's Agency Purchasing Conference on October 16-19 at Canaan Valley State Resort. With the overwhelming response in registration, we hope to not only share valuable information on a variety of purchasing-related issues, but have the opportunity to discuss with the participants ways of improvement. I am looking forward to meeting many of you at our conference.

Discussion has been raised in the Purchasing Division concerning the Request for Quotations form (WV-43) which agencies have used in the past to document written bids.

The official existing form is multi-part, with a shaded area to provide individual bid specifications to each vendor.

It has been brought to the Purchasing Division's attention that other 'modified' alternatives have been made to this form, including one being a single page form.

To maintain consistency and ensure that proper terms and conditions are inserted on the reverse side of this form, please respond preferably by electronic mail to Diane Holley as to the preference you have for this form. Please indicate your preferences from the following:

p You prefer not using the form

p You prefer using a multi-part form

p You prefer using a single page form

p You prefer getting the form from Correctional Industries

p You prefer getting the form from the Purchasing Division

p You prefer downloading the form from the Internet.

Let us know soon as possible to your preferences by e-mailing Diane Holley at dholley@gwmail.state.wv.us. Your input is important to us!

Purchasing Director Dave Tincher and his staff will present information this month on the state purchasing process at the 18th Annual Mountain State Business and Trade Show.

With more than 200 exhibits and 4,000 area business decision makers in attendance, this show offers state businesses an opportunity to network and learn more about the 'art of selling.'

Purchasing Division representatives, including Tincher, Diane Holley, Curt Curtiss, Dan Miller and Jo Ann Dunlap, will conduct a workshop titled, "Learn steps to successfully compete and win the bid process in order to sell products and services to the state of WV."

This workshop will discuss the steps in participating in the state competitive bid process. These steps include how to become registered, how to market the business to the state, how the bid process works, how an award is made, an overview of various information on the Purchasing Division's website, and a review of policies and procedures.

"In attempt to attract more West Virginia vendors to the state's competitive bid process, it is our obligation to attend events such as the Mountain State Business and Trade Show to encourage our state vendors to participate," Tincher said. "During our panel discussion, we will be promoting our 3rd Annual Vendor Purchasing Conference which will be held next April."

The Mountain State Business and Trade Show, which will be held October 10-11 at the Charleston Civic Center, is coordinated by the Charleston Chamber of Commerce.

The Purchasing Division's "entertain-ment production team," as they fondly refer to themselves, is up to their old tricks!

The survey asked 2,366 people over age 18 about their attitudes on money. Despite what the media culture may indicate, most people chose values over the value of the dollar. Other findings include:

$ One-third said they did not want to be wealthy.

$ Four out of five said they feared a sudden windfall of money would make them greedy.

$ 75 percent worried that having a lot of money would make them insensitive.

$ 40 percent of women versus 27 percent of men said they would not want to become wealthy.

$ More than half said a family of four only needs an income of $100,000 to qualify as wealthy (the median           family income is $35,000).

$ Three-quarters believe wealth is more a product of hard work than luck.

$ If they suddenly got a lot of money, the survey participants indicated that they would either give the money to          family and friends, save or invest it, donate to charity or pay off their debts.

Each month, The Buyers Network familiarizes our readers with state businesses who have attended our past vendor purchasing conferences. We appreciated their participation in these training events.

Introducing Essential Office Furniture and Systems, Inc. of Clarksburg, West Virginia

Essential Office Furniture and Systems, Inc. of Princeton, West Virginia, offers a variety of office furniture, including panel systems, modular furniture, filing systems, seating, binding systems and traditional office furniture.

Tracy Sibley of Essential Office explains that West Virginia state government has an excellent pay cycle and great people to work with at all levels, especially at the agency level.

Sibley, who attended this year's vendor conference, was pleased with the outcome. "I gained excellent information and learned more about the purchasing process. I also was able to inform the decision-makers in state government on what my company can provide to the state," he said.

For more information on the products offered by Essential Office Furniture and Systems, contact Tracy Sibley at (304) 487-2236.

FY 2000 Annual Report Details the Continued
Growth and Purchasing Division's Future Plans

The Purchasing Division recently completed its Annual Report for fiscal year 2000. An important aspect of preparing these reports is to document the activities and accomplishments achieved by the Division. Some of the highlights for fiscal year 2000 included the following:

Æ New Capitol Parking Building, which was opened on October 25, 1999;

Æ The transfer of printing operations from the Consolidated Publishing Facility to Correctional Industries in order to combine similar services offered to state agencies;

Æ The development of a performance evaluation mechanism to gather data on purchase order transactions;

Æ Continued training and professional development.

The Acquisition and Contract Administration Section reported many improvements, including:

Æ Increased usage of the State Purchasing Card,

Æ Expansion of our toll-free telephone number nationwide,

Æ Implementation of the concept of "minimum acceptable score," which requires all vendors ato attain a minimum of 70% of the total possible points;

Æ Creation of two new statewide contracts for digital copy machines and food supplements.

The Administrative Services Section indicated many achievements during fiscal year 2000, including:

Æ Enhancements made to the Purchasing Division's website;

Æ Lowering the current gasoline/maintenance credit card fee for the Fleet Management Program from $.80 a card per month to no charge.

Æ Conducting an onsite Surplus Property auction in Romney which accommodated state agencies in the area as well as private citizens.

Æ With the new statewide contract with Avis, the average cost of a car rental dropped form $40.18 per day to $2.97. Overall, without a preferred car rental contract, the normal daily rate is $57.00 per day for a savings of $172,840.

The Annual Report noted two legislative changes during fiscal year 2000. House Bill 4805 concerned fraud in the purchasing process, with special emphasis on political subdivision. It required that awards cannot be made on contracts with lower quality than indicated on the specifications.

House Bill 4442, referred to as the Vendor Debarrment Bill, monitors vendors for breach of contract, failure to pay required taxes, and federal debarrment status. It affects those agencies which follow the state purchasing guidelines as well as those legally exempt from our regulations.

Æ To complete the final phase of the State Capitol Parking Plan, which includes parking space reallocation and lot renovation and maintenance.

Æ To overhaul the new and retired vehicle process to ensure efficiency and accountability.

Æ To continue enhancing the services offered to state travelers by rebidding and awarding the statewide contracts for travel services, travel/hospitality credit card and rental vehicles to the most qualified and efficient vendor.

Æ To bid and award a new statewide contract for the storage of state documents and records.

Æ To examine alternatives in automating the state purchasing process with special emphasis on electronic commercing.

Æ To continue to conduct informative professional development training programs for state agency procurement officers and vendors in order to facilitate a more productive working relationship.

Æ To roll out the purchase order evaluation mechanism to all state agencies to better measure the level of satisfaction of the products and services contracted by the state.

Æ To seek ways to encourage and educate West Virginia vendors to participate in the state’s competitive purchasing process.

West Virginia Vendors Shine According to FY00 PO Summary

According to statistics documented in the Purchasing Division's Annual Report for fiscal year 2000, the number of purchase orders issued to West Virginia businesses exceeded 70 percent. Below is more information regarding the fiscal year purchase order summary:

Resident Vendor Analysis

*The average PO amount for FY 2000 was $228,676.00

Agency Analysis

*The transactions for the state hospitals, the Board of Medicine, and the Board of Pharmacy were considered separately and individually, and are not included in the DHHR totals.

State Contract Awarded for Voice Recording

Effective October 1, 2000, the Purchasing Division awarded a new statewide contract to CVDS, Inc., which will provide voice recording for use by 911 emergency call-in stations or any installation that must have accurate record of all calls received and/or sent, according to Senior Buyer Charlyn Miller.

Although the contract was initiated by the West Virginia State Police, it is available to all state agencies and political subdivisions.

Statewide Contract Awarded for Digital Copy Machines

Since 1985, the Purchasing Division has maintained a statewide contract for copy machines. According to Assistant Purchasing Director Curt Curtiss, creating this contract was not an easy task, due to various factors which had to be evaluated beyond the simple cost of the machine.

Life cycle cost for lease, purchase and lease purchase had to be determined. This Best Value Purchasing tool examines the cost of the equipment throughout the life of its usage, including maintenance.

In addition to copy machines were high speed duplicators (mimeograph), offset presses, bindery and microfilming equipment.

This year, the Purchasing Division blended the copy machine technology into the computer technology by developing a statewide contract for digital copiers.

"The new digital copy machine contract will provide users with not only scan print technology, but so much more in the way of total solution by networking into your local area network and into your personal computers," Curtiss said. "This technology will enable you to scan a document, revise it, fax it, print it, store it, and send it. Basically, it offers a personal computer, fax machine, scanner and copier...all into one machine."

The successful vendors on the new statewide contract for digital copiers are Aaron’s Products, American Office Systems, Inc., Minolta Corp., Ricoh Corp., Sharp Electronics, and Xerox. The contract went into effect August 15, 2000.

According to Senior Buyer Charlyn Miller, the equipment was awarded as either stand-alone (non-connected) or PC/LAN interfaced (connected). "The connected machines' base cost includes the cost for connecting them to a single PC or Lan. Information Services and Communications Division (IS&C) and the Governor's Office of Technology Office (GOT) prior approvals are required for connected machines," she said. "Because non-connected machines were evaluated and awarded as such, it is not possible to upgrade them to a connected machine under the contract."

Miller noted that if the vendor has the same machine in both connected and unconnected versions, the user could switch to the connected item number if the vendor added the necessary components and began billing at the connected rate. (The upgrade would also need IS&C & GOT approvals.) Please note that there is no specific language in the contract for this type of switch, so it is the vendor’s choice to comply with your request to upgrade and bill appropriately. Users should pay close attention to the availability of a machine in both categories if they expect to upgrade during the life of the order.

Bids for lease-purchase pricing were requested with the Request for Proposal. "The quoted prices were not included in the award document, but are available from the vendor’s bid, which is a part of the contract by reference," Miller said. "The quotes were not included because this method of purchase is discouraged as being the least cost effective and most vendors quoted very high financing rates. Most, if not all purchases against this contract will not be a high enough dollar amount to use the statewide financing contract either."

Anyone wishing to lease-purchase must contact the buyer and provide justification that it would be the most cost effective method of acquiring the machine.

Miller added that there are change orders being processed at this time to replace discontinued models and to remove "connectivity" options inadvertently included on some non-connected machines’ price sheets.

Meet our Buying Staff...
                Pam Jones Advises Agencies to Check Deliveries

Editor's Note: This publication will highlight each of our buying staff to provide information on the commodities and services which they procure and learn more about the person behind the desk.

Meet Pam Jones, our senior buyer responsible for purchasing business services, cleaning equipment, hardware, natural gas, and service and trade equipment.

A graduate from West Virginia University's College of Creative Arts in 1982, Pam worked various jobs in the private section before beginning work in state government. After working for the Department of Health, she joined the buying section of the Purchasing Division in 1988.

Originally from Pendleton County, Pam has had responsibility to purchase a variety of commodities during her tenure, including professional services and technology. She is married and currently resides in Sissonville.

Pam offers a few purchasing tips to assist our agency purchasers:

w Check deliveries against purchase orders to ensure correct shipments of the products                                   ordered, brand, and model/item numbers;

w Always list a contact name and a telephone number on a Purchase Requisition;

w Provide suggested vendor names and addresses on purchasing requisitions;

w Agencies should respond promptly with award recommendations to the buyer.

Current Statewide Contract Update